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Voyager 2 in testing before its 1977 launch.
NASA is turning off more science instruments on its Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes that could help extend the life of the spacecraft launched in 1977 into the 2030s.
The space agency plans to cease operating Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24 to conserve power after halting use of the cosmic ray subsystem experiment on Voyager 1 late last month, NASA said March 5. Voyager 2’s cosmic ray subsystem is due for shutdown in 2026.
“If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission,” the program manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Suzanne Dodd, said in a statement.
The two probes depend on a radioisotope power system, but they lose about 4 watts of power each year. The probes carry 10 identical science instruments. Some of those, linked to planetary flybys, were turned off once that portion of the mission was completed. NASA last year ended the use of Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument because of limited utility in recent years of operation, having already done so on Voyager 1. Further shutdowns are planned.
“With the implementation of this power conservation plan, engineers believe the two probes could have enough electricity to continue operating with at least one science instrument into the 2030s,” NASA said.
Voyager 1 has now made it to more than 15 billion mi. from Earth, with Voyager 2 more than 13 billion mi. away.
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